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" THE SKETOn-BOOK 



W A S H I N G T O N 1 11 V L N ( 



n.M-STKATEI) WITH OKKJIXAL DESIGNS BY 

HUNTINGTON, KENSETT. DAULEY. IIOPPIN, LEUTZE. ItlCHAKDS, AVM. HAKT, 
OEKTELL. F. A. CHAPMAN. 



NEW YORK: 
(4 . I^ . V V T X A M ,441 B K O A I ) W A Y. 

MDCCCLXI V. 






Entered acfordin^^ to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, 
By G. p. PUTNAM, 
In the Clerk's OfHoe of the District Court of the Ignited States, for the Southern District 

of New York. 



SOURCE UNKNOWN 
MAY 2 8 lt26 



A. AI.V(fK]>, KLKCTltOTVl'EU A>'l) J'KINTKK. 



ILLIJSTEATIO:>TS. 



Jyront #ngiiml Jtsigus. 



ENGRAVED ON WOOD BY MESSRS. RKIIARDSON & COX. 



1. SLEEPY HOLLOW 

2. ICIIABOD-S EVENING WALK 

3. KATRINA AT THE WHEEL 

4. SUNNY-SIDE . 

5. ICIIABOD AND KATRINA 

6. THE MESSENGER. 
V. TAPPAN ZEE 

8. SLEEPY HOLLOW CHITIiCH 

9. THE OLD BRIDGE 

10. ICHxiBOD AND BROM BONES 
11- POSTSCRIPT 

12. KATUIN'A 

IB, DESIGN FOR BORDER 



.\KTIST. 


page 


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. 16 


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18 


. HrNTINGTOX . 


. 24 


IIOI'PIX . 


27 


Kensktt 


. 31 


W.M. Hakt 


.37 


. T. A. Richards 


. 43 


Lei't/.k 


45 


. Hekrkmc 


. 49 


Darlkv 


rovEK. 


F. A. (HAI'MAX. 


-• 




THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 

FOUND AMONG THE PAPERS OF THE LATE DIEDRICH 
KNICKERBOCKER. 

"A pleasing land of drowsy head it was, 

Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye ; 
And of gay castles in the clouds that pass, 
Forever flushing round a summer sky." 

Castle of Indolexce. 



iN the bosom of one of those spacious 
coves which indent the eastern shore 
of the Hudson, at that broad expansion 
of the river denominated by the ancient 
Dutch navigators the Tappan Zee, and where they always pru- 
dently shortened sail, and implored the protection of St. 
Nicholas when they crossed, there lies a small market-town or 




6 THE SKETCH BOOK. 

rural port, wliicli by some is called Grreensburgh, but wliicli is 
more generally and properly known by the name of Tarry 
Town. This name was given, we are told, in former days, by 
the good housewives of the adjacent country, from the inveter- 
ate propensity of their husbands to linger about the village 
tavern on market-days. Be that as it may, I do not vouch for 
the fact, but merely advert to it, for the sake of being precise 
and authentic. Not far from this village, perhaps about two 
miles, there is a little valley, or rather lap of land, among high 
hills, which is one of the quietest places in the whole world. 
A small brook glides through it, with just murmur enough to 
lull one to repose; and the occasional whistle of a quail, or 
tapping of a woodpecker, is almost the only sound that ever 
breaks in upon the uniform tranquillity. 

I recollect that, when a stripling, my first exploit in squirrel- 
shooting was in a grove of tall walnut-trees that shades one 
side of the valley. I had wandered into it at noon-time, when 
all nature is peculiarly quiet, and was startled by the roar of 
my own gun, as it broke the Sabbath stillness around, and was 
prolonged and reverberated by the angry echoes. If ever I 
should wish for a retreat, whither I might steal from the world 
and its distractions, and dream quietly away the remnant of a 
troubled life, I know of none more promising than this little 
valley. 

From the listless repose of the place, and the peculiar charac- 
ter of its inhabitants, who are descendants from the original 
Dutch settlers, this sequestered glen has long been known by 
the name of Sleepy Hollow, and its rustic lads are called the 
Sleepy Hollow Boys throughout all the neighboring country. 
A drowsy, dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, and 
to pervade the very atmosphere. Some say that the place was 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 7 

bewitched by a liigii Grerman doctor, during the early days of 
the settlement; others, that an old Indian chief, the prophet or 
wizard of his tribe, held his powwows there before the country 
was discovered by Master Hendrick Hudson. Certain it is, the 
place still continu.es under the sway of some witching power, 
that holds a spell over the minds of the good people, causing 
them to walk in a continual reverie. They are given to all 
kinds of marvellous beliefs; are subject to trances and visions; 
and frequently see strange sights, and hear music and voices in 
the air. The whole neighborhood abounds with local tales, 
haunted spots, and twilight superstitions : stars shoot and me- 
teors glare oftener across the valley than in any other part 
of the country, and the nightmare, with her whole nine fold, 
seems to make it the favorite scene of her gambols. 

The dominant spirit, however, that haunts this enchanted 
region, and seems to be commander-in-chief of all the powers of 
the air, is the apparition of a figure on horseback without a 
head. It is said by some to be the ghost of a Hessian trooper, 
whose head had been carried away by a cannon-ball, in some 
nameless battle during the revolutionary war; and who is ever 
and anon seen by the country folk, hurrying along in the gloom 
of night, as if on the wings of the wind. His haunts are not 
confined to the valley, but extend at times to the adjacent 
roads, and especially to the idcinity of a church at no great dis- 
tance. Indeed, certain of the most authentic historians of those 
parts, who have been careful in collecting and collating the 
floating facts concerning this spectre, allege that the body of 
the trooper having been buried in the churchj^ard, the ghost 
rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head; 
and that the rushing speed with which he sometimes passes 
alono' the Hollow, like a midnight blast, is owing to his being 



3 THE SKETCH BOOK. 

belated, and in a liuny to get back to tlie cliurchyard before 
daybreak. 

Such is the general purport of this legendary superstition, 
which has furnished materials for many a wild story in that 
region of shadows ; and the spectre is known, at all the coun- 
try firesides, by the name of the Headless Horseman of Sleepy 
Hollow. 

It is remarkable that the visionary propensity I have men- 
tioned is not confined to the native inhabitants of the valley, 
but is unconsciously imbibed by every one who resides there 
for a time. However wide awake they may have been before 
they entered that sleepy region, they are sure, in a little while, 
to inhale the witching influence of the air, and begin to 
grow imaginative — to dream dreams, and see apparitions. 

I mention this peaceful spot with all possible laud ; for it is 
in such little retired Dutch valleys, found here and there 
embosomed in the great State of New York, that population, 
manners, and customs, remain fixed ; while the great torrent of 
migration and improvement, which is making such incessant 
changes in other parts of this restless country, sweeps by them 
unobserved. They are like those little nooks of still water 
which border a rapid stream ; where we may see the straw and 
bubble riding quietly at anchor, or slowly revolving in their 
mimic harbor, undisturbed by the rush of the passing current. 
Though many years have elapsed since I trod the drowsy 
shades of Sleepy Hollow, yet I question whether I should not 
still find the same trees and the same families vegetating in its 
sheltered bosom. 

In this by-place of nature, there abode, in a remote period of 
American history, that is to say, some thirty years since, a 
worthy wight of the name of Ichabod Crane; who sojourned, 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY 1I(3LL0W. 





or, as lie expressed it, " tarried," in Sleepy Hollow, for the pur- 
pose of instructing the children of the vicinity. He was a 
native of Connecticut ; a State which supplies the Union with 
pioneers for the mind as well as for the forest, and sends forth 
yearly its legions of frontier woodsmen and country school- 
masters. The cognomen of Crane was not inapplicable to his 
person. He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoul- 



IQ THE SKETCH BOOK. 

ders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his 
sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole 
frame most loosely hung together. His head was small, and 
flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a long 
snipe nose, so that it looked like a weather-cock, perched upon 
his spindle neck, to tell which way the wind blew. To see him 
striding along the profile of a hill on a windy day, with his 
clothes bagging and fluttering about him, one might have mis- 
taken him for the genius of famine descending upon the earth, 
or some scarecrow eloped from a corn-field. 

His school-house was a low building of one large room, rude- 
ly constructed of logs ; the windows partly glazed, and partly 
patched with leaves of old copy-books. It was most ingenious- 
ly secured at vacant hours, by a withe twisted in the handle 
of the door, and stakes set against the window-shutters ; so that, 
though a thief might get in with perfect ease, he would find 
some embarrassment in getting out; an idea most probably 
borrowed by the architect, Yost Yan Houten, from the mystery 
of an eel-pot. The school-house stood in a rather lonely but 
pleasant situation, just at the foot of a woody hill, with a brook 
running close by, and a formidable birch-tree growing at one 
end of it. From hence the low murmur of his pupils' voices, 
conning over their lessons, might be heard in a drowsy sum- 
mer's day, like the hum of a bee-hive; interrupted now and 
then by the authoritative voice of the master, in the tone of 
menace or command ; or, peradventiire, by the appalling sound 
of the birch, as he urged some tardy loiterer along the flowery 
path of knowledge. Truth to say, he was a conscientious man, 
and ever bore in mind the golden maxim, " Spare the rod and 
spoil the child.'' — Ichabod Crane's scholars certainly were not 
spoiled. 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. H 

I would not have it imagined, however, that he was one 
of those cruel potentates of the school, who joy in the smart 
of their subjects; on the contrary, he administered justice with 
discrimination rather than severity; taking the burden off the 
backs of the weak, and laying it on those of the strong. Your 
mere puny stripling, that winced at the least flourish of the 
rod, was passed by with indulgence; but the claims of justice 
were satisfied by inflicting a double portion on some little, 
tough, wrong-headed, broad-skirted Dutch urchin, who sulked 
and swelled, and grew dogged and sullen beneath the birch. 
All this he called "doing his duty by their parents;" and he 
never inflicted a chastisement without following it by the as- 
surance, so consolatory to the smarting urchin, that " he would 
remember it, and thank him for it the longest day he had to 
live." 

When school hours were over, he was even the companion 
and playmate of the larger boys; and on holiday afternoons 
would convoy some of the smaller ones home, who happened to 
have pretty sisters, or good housewives for mothers, noted for 
the comforts of the cupboard. Indeed, it behooved him to 
keep on good terms with his pupils. The revenue arising from 
his school was small, and would have been scarcely suf6.cient 
to furnish him with daily bread, for he was a huge feeder, and, 
though lank, had the dilating powers of an anaconda; but to 
help out his maintenance, he was, according to country custom 
in those parts, boarded and lodged at the houses of the farmers, 
whose children he instructed. With these he lived successive- 
ly a week at a time ; thus going the rounds of the neighbor- 
hood, with all his worldly effects tied up in a cotton handker- 
chief 

That all this might not be too onerous on the purses of his 



12 THE SKETCH BOOK. 

rustic patrons, wlio are apt to consider tlie cost of scliooling 
a grievous burden, and schoolmasters as mere drones, lie had 
various wa3^s of rendering himself both useful and agreeable. 
He assisted the farmers occasionally in the lighter labors of 
their farms; helped to make hay; mended the fences; took 
the horses to water; drove the cows from pasture; and cut 
wood for the winter fire. He laid aside, too, all the dominant 
dignity and absolute sway with which he lorded it in his little 
empire, the school, and became wonderfully gentle and in- 
gratiating. He found favor in the eyes of the mothers, by 
petting the children, particularly the youngest; and like the 
lion bold, which whilom so magnanimously the lamb did hold, 
he would sit with a child on one knee, and rock a cradle with 
his foot for whole hours together. 

In addition to his other vocations, he was the singing-master 
of the neighborhood, and picked up many bright shillings 
by instructing the young folks in psalmody. It was a matter 
of no little vanity to him, on Sundays, to take his station in 
front of the church gallery, with a band of chosen singers; 
where, in his own mind, he completely carried away the palm 
from the parson. Certain it is, his voice resounded far above 
all the rest of the congregation ; and there are peculiar quavers 
still to be heard in that church, and which may even be heard 
half a mile off, quite to the opposite side of the mill-pond, on 
a still Sunday morning, which are said to be legitimately de- 
scended from the nose of Ichabod Crane. Thus, by divers 
little make-shifts in that ingenious way which is commonly 
denominated "by hook and by crook," the worthy pedagogue 
got on tolerably enough, and was thought, by all who under- 
stood nothing of the labor of headwork, to have a wonderfully 
easv life of it. 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. ^3 

The sclioolmaster is generally a man of some importance in 
tlie female circle of a rural neigliborliood ; being considered 
a kind of idle gentlemanlike personage, of vastly superior taste 
and accomplisliments to the rough country swains, and, indeed, 
inferior in learning only to the parson. His appearance, there- 
fore, is apt to occasion some little stir at the tea-table of a farm- 
house, and the addition of a supernumerary dish of cakes or 
sweetmeats, or, peradventure, the parade of a silver teapot. 
Our man of letters, therefore, was peculiarly happy in the 
smiles of all the country damsels. How he would figure among 
them in the churchyard, between services on Sundays 1 gather- 
ing grapes for them from the wild vines that overrun the sur- 
rounding trees; reciting for their amusement all the epitaphs 
on the tombstones; or sauntering, with a whole bevy of them, 
along the banks of the adjacent mill-pond; while the more 
bashful country bumpkins hung sheepishly back, envying his 
superior elegance and address. 

From his half itinerant life, also, he was a kind of travelling 
gazette, carrying the whole budget of local gossip from house 
to house ; so that his appearance was always greeted with satis- 
faction. He was, moreover, esteemed by the Avomen as a man 
of great erudition, for he had read several books quite through, 
and was a perfect master of Cotton Mather's history of New 
England Witchcraft, in which, by the way, he most firmly and 
potently believed. 

He was, in fact, an odd mixture of small shi-ewdness and 
simple credulity. His appetite for the marvellous, and his 
powers of digesting it, were equally extraordinary; and both 
had been increased by his residence in tliis spellbound region. 
Ko tale was too gross ov monstrous for liis capacious swallow. 
It was often liis delio-ht, after his school was dismissed in the 



l-j. THE SKETCH BOOK. 

afternoon, to stretcli himself on tlie rich bed of clover, borderiiig 
the little brook that whimpered by his school-house, and there 
con over old Mather's direful tales, u.ntil the gatliering dusk 
of the evening made the j^i'inted page a mere mist before his 
eyes. Then, as he wended his way, by swamp and stream and 
awful woodland, to the farm-house where he happened to be 
quartered, every sound of nature, at that witching hour, flut- 
tered his excited imagination : the moan of the whip-poor-w^ll"^"" 
from the hill-side; the boding cry of the tree-toad, that har- 
binger of storm; the dreary hooting of the screech-owl, or the 
sudden rustling in the thicket of birds frightened from their 
roost. The fire-flies, too, which sparkled most vividly in the 
darkest places, now and then startled him, as one of uncommon 
brightness would stream across his path; and if, by chance, a 
huge blockhead of a beetle came winging his blundering flight 
against him, the poor varlet was ready to give up the ghost, 
with the idea that he was struck with a witch's token. His 
only resource on such occasions, either to drown thought, or 
drive away evil spirits, was to sing psalm tunes; — and the good 
people of Sleepy Hollow, as they sat by their doors of an even- 
ing, were often filled with awe, at hearing his nasal melody, "in 
linked sweetness long drawn out," floating from the distant hill, 
or along the dusky road. 

Another of his sources of fearful pleasure was, to pass long 
winter evenings with the old Dutch wives, as they sat spinning 
by the fire, with a row of apples roasting and spluttering along 
the hearth, and listen to their marvellous tales of ghosts and 
goblins, and haunted fields, and haunted brooks, and haunted 



* Tlie whip-poor-will is a bird wliifli is only heard at night. Tr receives it; 
name from its note, which is thout'ht to resemble those words. 



THE LEdEND OF SLEEPY UOLLO^V. 15 

bridges, and haunted houses, and particularly of the headless 
horseman, or galloping Hessian of the Hollow, as they some- 
times called him. He would delight them equally by his anec- 
dotes of witchcraft, and of the direful omens and portentous 
sights and sounds in the air, which prevailed in tlie earlier 
times of Connecticut ; and would frighten them wofully with 
speculations upon comets and shooting stars ; and with the 
alarming fact that the world did absolutely turn round, and that 
they were half the time topsy-turvy ! 

But if there was a pleasure in all this, while snugly cuddling 
in the chimney corner of a chamber that was all of a ruddy 
glow from the crackling wood fire, and where, of course, no 
spectre dared to show his face, it was dearly purchased by the 
terrors of his subsequent walk homewards. What fearful 
shapes and shadows beset his path amidst the dim and ghastly 
glare of a snowy night ! — With what wistful look did he eye 
CA^ery trembling ray of light streaming across the waste fields 
from some distant window ! — How often was he appalled by 
some shrub covered with snow, which, like a sheeted spectre, 
beset his very path ! — How often did he shrink with curdling 
awe at the sound of his own steps on the frosty crust beneath 
his feet ; and dread to look over his shoulder, lest he should 
behold some uncouth being tramping close behind him ! — and 
how often was he thrown into complete dismay by some rushing 
blast, howling among the trees, in the idea that it was the 
Galloping Hessian on one of his nightly scourings ! 

All these, however, were mere terrors of the night, phantoms 
of the mind that walk in darkness; and though he had seen 
many spectres in his time, and been more than once beset by 
Satan in divers shapes, in his lonely perambulations, yet day- 
light ])ut an end to all these evils ; and he would liave ])assed a 



1() 



THE SKETCH BOOK. 




pleasant life of it, in despite of the devil and all liis works, if 
his path had not been crossed by a being that causes more 
perplexity to mortal man than ghosts, goblins, and the whole 
race of witches put together, and that was — a woman. 

Among the musical disciples who assembled, one evening in 
each week, to receive his instructions in psalmody, was Katrina 



TJIE LEGEND UV SLEEPV IK^LLOW. IJ 

Yan Tassel, tlie daughter and only cliild of a substantial Dutch 
farmer. She was a blooming lass of fresh eighteen ; pkimp as a 
partridge ; ripe and melting and rosy cheeked as one of her 
father's peaches, and universally famed, not merely for her 
beauty, but her vast expectations. She was withal a little of a 
coquette, as might be 23erceived even in her dress, which was a 
mixture of ancient and modern fashions, as most suited to set 
off her charms. She wore the ornaments of pure yellow gold, 
which her great-great-grandmother had brought over from Saar- 
dam ; the tempting stomacher of the olden time ; and withal a 
provolvingly short petticoat, to display the prettiest foot and 
ankle in the country round. 

Ichabod Crane had a soft and foolish heart towards the sex ; 
and it is not to be wondered at, that so tempting a morsel soon 
found favor in his eyes ; more especially after he had visited 
her in her paternal mansion. Old Baltus Van Tassel was a 
perfect picture of a thriving, contented, liberal-hearted farmer. 
He seldom, it is true, sent either his eyes or his thoughts beyond 
the boundaries of his own farm ; but within those every thing 
was snug, happy, and well-conditioned. He was satisfied with 
his wealth, but not proud of it ; and piqued himself upon the 
hearty abundance, rather than the style in which he lived. His 
stronghold was situated on the banks of the Hudson, in one 
of those green, sheltered, fertile nooks, in which the Dutch 
farmers are- so fond of nestling. A great elm-tree spread its 
broad branches over it ; at the foot of which bubbled up a spring 
of the softest and sweetest water, in a little well, formed of a 
barrel ; and then stole sparkling away through the grass, to a 
neighboring brook, that bubbled along among alders and dwarf 
willows. Hard by the farm-house was a vast barn, that might 
have served for a church ; every window and crevice of which 
3 



18 



THE SKETCH BOOK. 



^fel 



m?; 




seemed bursting fortli witli the treasures of the farm ; the 
flail was busily resounding within it from morning to night ; 
swallows and martins skimmed twittering about the eaves ; and 
rows of pigeons, some with one eye turned up, as if watching 
the weather, some with their heads under their wings, or buried 
in their bosoms, and others swelling, and cooing, and bowing 
about their dames, were enjoying the sunshine on the roof. 
Sleek unwieldy porkers were grunting in the repose and abun- 
dance of their pens ; whence sallied forth, now and then, troops 
of sucking pigs, as if to snuff the air. A stately squadron of 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. ^9 

snowy geese were riding in an adjoining pond, convoying whole 
fleets of ducks ; regiments of turkeys were gobbling through 
the farmyard, and guinea fowls fretting about it, like ill- 
tempered housewives, with their peevish discontented cry. 
Before the barn door strutted the gallant cock, that pattern of 
a husband, a warrior, and a fine gentleman, claj)ping his bur- 
nished wings, and crowing in the pride and gladness of his 
heart — sometimes tearing up the earth with his feet, and then 
generously calling his ever-hungry family of wives and children 
to enjoy the rich morsel which he had discovered. 

The pedagogue's mouth watered, as he looked upon this 
sumptuous promise of luxurious winter fare. In his devouring 
mind's eye, he pictured to himself every roasting-pig running 
about with a pudding in his belly, and an apjDle in his mouth ; 
the pigeons were snugly put to bed in a comfortable pie, and 
tucked in with, a coverlet of crust ; the geese were swimming in 
their own gravy ; and the ducks pairing cosily in dishes, like 
snug married couples, with a decent competency of onion sauce. 
In the porkers he saw carved out the future sleek side of bacon, 
and juicy relishing ham ; not a turkey but he beheld daintily 
trussed up, with its gizzard under its wing, and, peradventure, 
a necklace of savory sausages ; and even bright chanticleer 
himself lay sprawling on his back, in a side-dish, with uplifted 
claws, as if craving that quarter which his chivalrous spirit 
disdained to ask while living. 

As the enraptured Ichabod fancied all this, and as he rolled 
his great green eyes over the fat meadow-lands, the rich fields of 
wheat, of rye, of buckwheat, and Indian corn, and the orchards 
burthened with ruddy fruit, which surrounded the warm tene- 
ment of Van Tassel, his heart yearned after the damsel who 
was to inherit these domains, and his imagination expanded with 



20 THE 8lvETCII BOOK. 

the idea, how they might be readily turned into cash, and the 
money invested in immense tracts of wild land, and shingle 
palaces in the wilderness. Nay, his busy fancy already realized 
his hopes, and presented to him the blooming Katrina, with a 
whole family of children, mounted on the top of a wagon loaded 
with household trumpery, with pots and kettles dangling 
beneath ; and he beheld himself bestriding a pacing mare, with 
a colt at her heels, setting out for Kentucky, Tennessee, or the 
Lord knows where. 

When he entered the house the conquest of his heart was 
complete. It was one of those spacious farm-houses, with 
high-ridged, but lowly-sloping roofs, built in the style handed 
down from the first Dutch settlers ; the low projecting eaves 
forming a piazza along the front, capable of being closed up in 
bad weather. Under this were hung flails, harness, various 
utensils of husbandry, and nets for fishing in the neighboring 
river. Benches were built along the sides for summer use ; and 
a great spinning-wheel at one end, and a churn at the other, 
showed the various uses to which this important porch might 
be devoted. From this piazza the wondering Ichabod entered 
the hall, which formed the centre of the mansion and the place 
of usual residence. Here, rows of resplendent pewter, ranged 
on a long dresser, dazzled his eyes. In one corner stood a huge 
bag of wool ready to be spun ; in another a quantity of linsey- 
woolsey just from the loom ; ears of Indian corn, and strings of 
dried apples and peaches, hung in gay festoons along the walls, 
mingled with the gaud of red peppers ; and a door left ajar gave 
him a peep into the best parlor, where the claw-footed chairs, 
and dark mahogany tables, shone like mirrors ; and irons, with 
their accompanying shovel and tongs, glistened from their covert 
of asparagus tops ; mock-oranges and conch-shells decorated the 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 21 

mantel-piece ; strings of various colored birds' eggs were sus- 
pended above it ; a great ostrich egg was liung from tlie centre 
of tlie room, and a corner cupboard, knowingly left open, 
displayed immense treasures of old silver and well-mended 
china. 

From the moment Ichabod laid his eyes upon these regions 
of delight, the peace of his mind was at an end, and his only 
study was how to gain the affections of the peerless daughter of 
Van Tassel. In this enterprise, however, he had more real 
difficulties than generally fell to the lot of a knight-errant of 
yore, who seldom had any thing but giants, enchanters, fiery 
dragons, and such like easily-conquered -adversaries, to contend 
with ; and had to make his way merely through gates of iron 
and brass, and walls of adamant, to the castle keep, where the 
lady of his heart was confined ; all which he achieved as easily 
as a man would carve his way to the centre of a Christmas pie ; 
and then the lady gave him her hand as a matter of course. 
Ichabod, on the contrary, had to win his way to the heart of a 
country coquette, beset with a labyrinth of whims and caprices, 
which were forever presenting new difficulties and impediments ; 
and he had to encounter a host of fearful adversaries of real 
flesh and blood, the numerous rustic admirers, who beset every 
portal to her heart; keeping a watchful and angry eye upon 
each other, but ready to fly out in the common cause against 
any new competitor. 

Among these the most formidable v/as a burly, roaring, 
roystering blade, of the name of Abraham, or, according to 
the Dutch abbreviation, Brom Yan Brunt, the hero of the 
country round, which rang Avith his feats of strength and 
hardihood. He was broad-shouldered and double-jointed, with 
short curly black hair, and a bluff, but not unpleasant counte- 



22 THE SKETCH book. 

nance, Laving a mingled air of fun and arrogance. From his 
Herculean frame and great powers of limb, he had received 
the nickname of Bkom Bones, hy which he was universally 
known. He was famed for great knowledge and skill in 
horsemanship, being as dexterous on horseback as a Tartar. 
He was foremost at all races and cock-fights : and, wdth the 
ascendency which bodily strength acquires in rustic life, was 
the umpire in all disputes, setting his hat on one side, and 
giving his decisions with an air and tone admitting of no gain- 
say or appeal. He was always ready for either a fight or a 
frolic ; but had more mischief than ill-will in his composition ; 
and, with all his overbearing roughness, there was a strong dash 
of waggish good humor at bottom. He had three or four boon 
companions, who regarded him as their model, and at the head 
of whom he scoured the country, attending every scene of feud 
or merriment for miles round. In cold weather he was 
distinguished by a fur cap, surmounted with a flaunting fox's 
tail; and when the folks at a country gathering descried this 
well-known crest at a distance, whisking about among a squad 
of hard riders, they always stood by for a squall. Sometimes 
his crew would be heard dashing along past the farm-houses 
at midnight, with whoop and halloo, like a troop of Don Cos- 
sacks ; and the old dames, startled out of their sleep, would 
listen for a moment till the hurry-scurry had clattered by, 
and then exclaim, " Ay, there goes Brom Bones and his gang !" 
The neighbors looked upon him with a mixture of awe, ad- 
miration, and good -will ; and when any madcap prank, or rustic 
brawl, occurred in the vicinity, always shook their heads, and 
warranted Brom Bones was at the bottom of it. 

This rantipole hero had for some time singled out the bloom- 
ing Katrina for the object of his uncouth gallantries; and 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 23 

tho-Qgli his amorous toyings were sometliing like tlie gentle 
caresses and endearments of a bear, yet it was whispered that 
she did not altogether discourage his hopes. Certain it is, 
his advances were signals for rival candidates to retire, who felt 
no inclination to cross a lion in his amours; insomuch, that when 
his horse was seen tied to Yan Tassel's paling, on a Sunday 
night, a sure sign that his master was courting, or, as it is 
termed, "sjDarking," within, all other suitors passed by in 
despair, and carried the war into other quarters. 

Such was the formidable rival with whom Ichabod Crane had 
to contend ; and, considering all things, a stouter man than he 
would have shrunk from the competition, and a wiser man 
would have despaired. He had, however^ a happy mixture of 
pliability and perseverance in his nature ; he was in form and 
spirit like a supple-jack — yielding, but tough; though he 
bent, he never broke ; and though he bowed beneath the 
slightest pressure, yet, the moment it was away — jerk I he was 
as erect, and carried his head as high as ever. 

To have taken the field openly against his rival would have 
been madness ; for he was not a man to be thwarted in his 
amours, any more than that stormy lover, Achilles. Ichabod, 
therefore, made his adA^ances in a quiet and gently-insinuating 
manner. Under cover of his character of singing-master, he 
made frequent visits at the farm-house ; not that he had any 
thing to apprehend from the meddlesome interference of 
parents, which is so often a stumbling-block in the path of 
lovers. Bait Yan Tassel was an easy, indulgent soul ; he loved 
his daughter better even than his pipe, and, like a reasonable 
man and an excellent father, let her have her way in every 
thing. His notable little wife, too, had enough to do to attend 
to her housekeeping and manage her poultry ; for, as she sagely 



2-t 



TITE SKET(U[ BOOK. 







observed, ducks and geese are foolisli tilings, and must be 
looked after, but girls can take care of themselves. Tlius, wliile 
the busy dame bustled about the house, or plied her spinning- 
wheel at one end of the j^iazza, honest Bait would sit smoking 
his evening pipe at the other, watching the achievements of 
a little wooden warrior, Avho, armed with a sword in each hand. 



THE LEGEXL> OF SLEEPY II()LL(JW. 95 

was most valiantly fighting the wind on the pinnacle of the 
barn. In the mean time, Ichabod would carry on his suit with 
the daughter by the side of the spring under the great elm, 
or sauntering along in the twilight, that hour so favorable to the 
lover's eloquence. 

I profess not to know how women's hearts are wooed and 
won. To me they have always been matters of riddle and 
admiration. Some seem to have but one vulnerable point, or 
door of access ; while others have a thousand avenues, and may 
be captured in a thousand different ways. It is a great triumph 
of skill to gain the former, but a still greater proof of general- 
ship to maintain possession of the latter, for the man must 
battle for his fortress at every door and window. He who wins 
a thousand common hearts is therefore entitled to some renown ; 
but he who keeps undisputed sway over the heart of a coquette, 
is indeed a hero. Certain it is, this was not the case with the 
redoubtable Brom Bones ; and from the moment Ichabod Crane 
made his advances, the interests of the former evidently de- 
clined; his horse was no longer seen tied at the palings on 
Sunday nights, and a deadly feud gradually arose between him 
and the preceptor of Sleepy Hollow. 

Brom, who had a degree of xough chivalry in his nature, 
would fain have carried matters to open warfare, and have 
settled their pretensions to the lady according to the mode 
of those most concise and simple reasoners, the knights-errant 
of yore — ^by single combat ; but Icbabod was too conscious of 
the superior might of his adversary to enter the lists against 
him : he had overheard a boast of Bones, that he would "double 
the schoolmaster up, and lay him on a shelf of his own school - 
house;" and he was too wary to give him an opportunity. 
There was something extremely provoking in this obstinately 



26 THE SKp:Trii book. 

pacific system ; it left Brom no alternative bnt to draw upon 
the funds of rustic waggery in his disposition, and to play off 
boorish practical jokes upon his rival. Ichabod became the 
object of whimsical persecution to Bones, and his gang of rough 
riders. They harried his hitherto peaceful domains ; smoked 
out his singing-school, by stopping up the chimney; broke into 
the school-hou se at night, in spite of its formidable fastenings of 
with and window-stakes, and turned every thing topsy-turvy : 
so that the poor schoolmaster began to think all the witches in 
the country held their meetings there. But what was still more 
annoying, Brom took all opportunities of turning him into 
ridicule in presence of his mistress, and had a scoundrel dog 
which he taught to whine in the most ludicrous manner, 
and introdu.ced as a rival of Ichabod's to instruct her in 
psalmody. 

In this way matters went on for some time, without producing 
any material effect on the relative situation of the contending 
powers. On a fine autumnal afternoon, Ichabod, in pensive 
mood, sat enthroned on the- lofty stool whence he usually 
watched all the concerns of his little literary realm. In his 
hand he swayed a ferule, that sceptre of despotic power ; the 
birch of justice reposed on three nails, behind the throne, a 
constant terror to evil-doers ; while on the desk before him 
might be seen sundry contraband articles and prohibited 
weapons, detected u.pon the persons of idle urchins ; such as 
half-munched apples, popguns, whirligigs, fly-cages, and whole 
legions of rampant little paper game-cocks. Apparently there 
had been some appalling act of justice recently inflicted, for his 
scholars were all busily intent upon their books, or slyly whis- 
pering behind them with one eye kept upon the master ; and a 
kind of buzzing stillness reigned throughout the school-room. 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY II()LL()^¥. 



1*1 ill 



/-' 




It was suddenly interrupted by the appearance of a negro, in 
tow-clotli jacket and trousers, a round-crowned fragment of a 
hat, like the cap of Mercury, and mounted on the back of a 
ragged, wild, half-broken colt, which he managed with a rope by 
way of halter. He came clattering up to the school door, with 
an invitation to Ichabod to attend a merry-making or " quilting 
frolic," to be held that evening at Mynheer Yan Tassel's ; and 
having delivered his message with that air of importance, and 
effort at fine language, which a negro is apt to display on petty 
embassies of the kind, he dashed over the brook, and was seen 
scampering away up the hollow, full of the importance and 
hurry of his mission. 

All was now bustle and hubbub in the late quiet school- 
room. The scholars were hurried through their lessons, with- 



28 THE SKETCH BOOK. 

out Stopping at trifles ; those who were nimble skipped over 
half with impunity, and those who were tardy had a smart 
application now and then in the rear, to quicken their speed, 
or help them over a" tall word. Books were flung aside without 
being put away on the shelves, inkstands were overturned, 
benches thrown down, and the whole school was turned loose 
an hour before the usual time, bursting forth like a legion of 
young imps, yelping and racketing about the green, in joy at 
their early emancipation. 

The gallant Ichabod now spent at least an extra half hour 
at his toilet, brushing and furbishing up his best, and indeed 
only suit of rusty black, and arranging his looks by a bit of 
broken looking-glass, that hung up in the school-house. That 
he might make his appearance before his mistress in the true 
style of a cavalier, he borrowed a horse from the farmer with 
whom he was domiciliated, a choleric old Dutchman, of the 
name of Hans Yan Eipper, and, thus gallantly mounted, issued 
forth, like a knight-errant in quest of adventures. But it is 
meet I should, in the true spirit of romantic story, give some 
account of the looks and equipments of my hero and his steed. 
The animal he bestrode was a broken-down plough-horse, that 
had outlived almost every thing but his viciousness. He was 
gaunt and shagged, with a ewe neck and a head like a hammer; 
his rusty mane and tail were tangled and knotted with burrs ; 
one eye had lost its pupil, and was glaring and spectral; but 
the other had the gleam of a genuine devil in it. Still he must 
have had fire and mettle in his day, if we may judge from the 
name he bore of Gunpowder. He had, in fact, been a favorite 
steed of his master's, the choleric Yan Eipper, who was a 
furious rider, and had infused, very probably, some of his own 
spirit into the animal ; for, old and broken-down as he looked, 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 29 

there was more of the lurking devil in him than in any young 
filly in the country. 

Ichabod was a suitable figure for such a steed. He rode 
with short stirrups, which brought his knees nearly up to the 
pommel of the saddle ; his sharp elbows stuck out like grass- 
hoppers' ; he carried his whip perpendicu.larly in his hand, like 
a sceptre, and, as his horse jogged on, the motion of his arms 
was not unlike the flapping of a pair of wings. A small wool 
hat rested on the top of his nose, for so his scanty strip of 
forehead might be called; and the skirts of his black coat 
fluttered out almost to the horse's tail. Such was the appear- 
ance of Ichabod and his steed, as they shambled out of the gate 
of Hans Yan Eipper, and it was altogether such an apparition 
as is seldom to be met with in broad daylight. 

It was, as I have said, a fine autumnal day ; the sky was clear 
and serene, and nature wore that rich and golden livery which 
we always associate with the idea of abundance. The forests 
had put on their sober brown and yellow, while some trees of 
the tenderer kind had been nipped by the frosts into brilliant 
dyes of orange, purple, and scarlet. Streaming files of wild 
ducks began to make their appearance high in the air; the bark 
of the squirrel might be heard from the groves of beech and 
hickory nuts, and the pensive whistle of the quail at intervals 
from the neighboring stubble-field. 

The small birds were taking their farewell banquets. In the 
fulness of their revehy, they fluttered, chirping and frolicking, 
from bush to bush, and tree to tree, capricious from the verj- 
profusion and variety around them. There was the honest 
cock-robin, the favorite game of stripling sportsmen, with its 
loud, querulous note ; and the twittering blackbirds flying in 
sable clouds; and the golden-winged woodpecker, with his 



30 THE SKETCH BOOK. 

crimson crest, his broad black gorget, and splendid plumage; 
and the cedar-bird, with its red-tipt wings and yellow-tij)t tail, 
and its little montero cap of feathers ; and the blue jaj, that 
noisj coxcomb, in his gay light-blue coat and white under- 
clothes — screaming and chattering, nodding and bobbing and 
bowing, and pretending to be on good terms with every songster 
of the grove. 

As Ichabod jogged slowly on his way, his eye, ever open to 
every symptom of culinary abundance, ranged with delight 
over the treasures of joU}^ autumn. On all sides he beheld 
vast store of apples ; some hanging in oppressive opulence on 
the trees ; some gathered into baskets and barrels for the 
market; others heaped up in rich piles for the cider-press. 
Farther on he beheld great fields of Indian corn, with its golden 
ears peeping from their leafy coverts, and holding out the 
promise of cakes and hasty -pudding ; and the yellow pumpkins 
Ij^ing beneath them, turning up their fair round bellies to the 
sun, and giving ample prospects of the most kixurious of pies ; 
and anon he passed the fragrant buckwheat fields, breathing 
the odor of the bee-hive, and as he beheld them soft anticipa- 
tions stole over his mind of dainty slapjacks, well buttered, and 
garnished with honey or treacle, by the delicate little dimpled 
hand of Katrina Yan Tassel. 

Thus feeding his mind with many sweet thoughts and 
"sugared suppositions," he journeyed along the sides of a 
range of hills which look out upon some of the goodliest scenes 
of the mighty Hudson. The sun gradually wheeled his broad 
disk down into the west. The wide bosom of the Tappan Zee 
lay motionless and glassy, excepting that here and there a 
gentle undulation waved and prolonged the blue shadow of the 
distant mountain. A few amber clouds floated in the skv, 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW 



81 




without a breath of air to move tliem. Tlie liorizon was of a 
fine golden tint, changing gradually into a pure apple green, 
and from that into the deep blue of the mid-heaven. A slanting- 
ray lingered on the woody crests of the precipices that overhung 
some parts of the river, giving greater depth to the dark-gray 
and purple of their rocky sides. A sloop was loitering in the 
distance, dropping slowly down with the tide, her sail hanging 



32 THE SKETCH BOOK. 

uselessly against the mast; and as the reflection of the sky 
gleamed along the still water, it seemed as if the vessel was 
suspended in the air. 

It was toward evening that Ichabod arrived at the castle of 
the Heer Yan Tassel, which he found thronged with the pride 
and flower of the adjacent country; — old farmers, a spare, 
leathern-faced race, in homespun coats and breeches, blue 
stockings, huge shoes, and magnificent pewter buckles; their 
brisk withered little dames, in close crimped caps, long-waisted 
sliortgowns, homespun petticoats, with scissors and pincushions, 
and gay calico pockets hanging on the outside ; buxom lasses, 
almost as antiquated as their mothers, excepting where a straw 
hat, a fine ribbon, or perhaps a white frock, gave symptoms of 
city innovation; the sons, in short square-skirted coats, with 
rows of stupendous brass buttons, and their hair generally 
queued in the fashion of the times, especially if they could 
procu.re an eel-skin for the purpose, it being esteemed, through- 
out the country, as a potent nourisher and strengthener of the 
hair. 

Brom Bones, however, was the hero of the scene, having come 
to the gathering on his favorite steed Daredevil, a creature, like 
himself, full of mettle and mischief, and which no one but 
himself could manage. He was, in fact, noted for preferring 
vicious animals, given to all kinds of tricks, which kept the 
rider in constant risk of his neck, for he held a tractable, well- 
broken horse as unworthy of a lad of spirit. 

Fain would I pause to dwell upon the world of charms that 
burst upon the enraptured gaze of my hero, as he entered the 
state parlor of Yan Tassel's mansion ; — not those of the bevy 
of buxom lasses, with their luxurious display of red and white ; 
but the ample charms of a genuine Dutch country tea-table, in 



THE LEGEND oF kSLEEPY HOLLOW. 33 

the sumptuous time of autumn. Sucli lieaped-up j)latters of 
cakes of various and almost indescribable kinds, known onlj 
to experienced Dutcla housewives ! There was the doughty 
dough-nut, the tenderer oly koek, and the crisp and crumbling 
kruUer; sweet-cakes and short-cakes, ginger-cakes and honey- 
cakes, and the whole family of cakes. And then there were 
apple-pies and peach-pies and pumpkin-pies ; besides slices of 
ham and smoked beef; and moreover delectable dishes of pre- 
served plums, and peaches, and pears, and quinces ; not to 
mention broiled shad and roasted chickens ; together with 
bowls of milk and cream, all mingled higgledy-piggledy, pretty 
much as I have enumerated them, with the motherly tea-pot 
sending up its clouds of vapor from the midst — Heaven bless 
the mark ! I want breath and time to discuss this banquet as 
it deserves, and am too eager to get on with my story. Happily, 
Ichabod Crane was not in so great a hurry as his historian, but 
did ample justice to every dainty. 

He was a kind and thankful creature, whose heart dilated in 
proportion as his skin was filled with good cheer ; and whose 
spirits rose with eating as some men's do with drink. He 
could not help, too, rolling his large eyes round him as he ate, 
and chuckling with the possibility that he might one day be 
lord of all this scene of almost unimaginable luxury and splen- 
dor. Then, he thought, how soon he'd turn his back upon the 
old school-house ; snap his fingers in the face of Hans Yan 
Ripper, and every other niggardly patron, and kick any itiner- 
ant pedagogue out of doors that should dare to call him 
comrade ! 

Old Baltus Yan Tassel moved about among his guests with 
a face dilated with content and good-humor, round and jolly as 
the harvest moon. His hospitable attentions were brief, but 



34 THE SKETCH BOOK. 

expressive, being confined to a shake of the hand, a slap on the 
shoulder, a loud laugh, and a pressing invitation to " fall to and 
help themselves." 

And now the sound of the music from the common room, 
or hall, summoned to the dance. The musician was an old 
grayheaded negro, who had been the itinerant orchestra of the 
neighborhood for more than half a century. His instrument 
was as old and battered as himself The greater part of the 
time he scraped on two or three strings, accompanying every 
movement of the bow with a motion of the head ; bowing 
almost to the ground, and stamping with his foot whenever a 
fresh couple were to start. 

Ichabod prided himself upon his dancing as much as upon his 
vocal powers. Not a limb, not a fibre about him was idle ; and 
to have seen his loosely hung frame in full motion, and clattering 
about the room, you would have thought Saint Yitus himself, 
that blessed patron of the dance, was figuring before you in 
person. He was the admiration of all the negroes ; who having 
gathered, of all ages and sizes, from the farm and the neighbor- 
hood, stood forming a pyramid of shining black faces at every 
door and window, gazing with delight at the scene, rolling their 
white eye-balls, and showing grinning rows of ivory from ear 
to ear. How could the flogger of urchins be otherwise than 
animated and joyous? the lady of his heart was his partner in 
the dance, and smiling graciously in reply to all his amorous 
oglings; while Brom Bones, sorely smitten with love and 
jealousy, sat brooding by himself in one corner. 

When the dance was at an end, Ichabod was attracted to a 
knot of the sager folks, who, with old Yan Tassel, sat smoking 
at one end of the piazza, gossiping over former times, and draw- 
in e^ out lono' stories about the war. 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 35 

This iieigliborliood, at the time of which I am speaking, was 
one of those highly-favored places which abound with chronicle 
and great men. The British and American line had run near 
it during the war ; it had, therefore, been the scene of maraud- 
ing, and infested with refugees, cow-boys, and all kinds of 
border chivalry. Just sufficient time had elapsed to enable 
each story-teller to dress up his tale with a little becoming- 
fiction, and, in the indistinctness of his recollection, to make 
himself the hero of every exploit. 

There was the story of DofPue Martling, a large blue-bearded 
Dutchman, who had nearly taken a British frigate with an old 
iron nine-pounder from a mud breastwork, only that his gun 
burst at the sixth discharge. And there was an old gentleman 
who shall be nameless, being too rich a mynheer to be lightly 
mentioned, who, in the battle of Whiteplains, being an ex- 
cellent master of defence, parried a musket-ball with a small 
sword, insomu.ch that he absolutely felt it whiz round the blade, 
and glance off at the hilt : in proof of which, he was ready at 
any time to show the sword, with the hilt a little bent. There 
were several more that had been equally great in the field, not 
one of whom but was persuaded that he had a considerable 
hand in bringing the war to a happy termination. 

But all these were nothing to the tales of ghosts and appari- 
tions that succeeded. The neighborhood is rich in legendary 
treasures of the kind. Local tales and superstitions thrive best 
in these sheltered long-settled retreats ; but are trampled under 
foot by the shifting throng that forms the population of most 
of our country places. Besides, there is no encouragement for 
ghosts in most of our villages, for they have scarcely had time 
to finish their first nap, and turn themselves in their graves, 
before their surviving: friends have travelled awav fn^n the 



36 THE SKETCH BOOK. 

neigiiborliood ; so tliat wlien tliey turn out at night to walk 
their rounds, thej have no acquaintance left to call upon. This 
is perhaps the reason why we so seldom hear of ghosts except 
in our long- established Dutch communities. 

The immediate cause, however, of the prevalence of super- 
natural stories in these parts, was doubtless owing to the vicinity 
of Sleepy Hollow. There was a contagion in the very air that 
blew from that haunted region ; it breathed forth an atmosphere 
of dreams and fancies infecting all the land. Several of the 
Sleepy Hollow people were present at Yan Tassel's, and, as 
usual, were doling out their wild and wonderful legends. 
Many dismal tales were told about funeral trains, and mourn- 
ing cries and wailings heard and seen about the great tree 
where the unfortunate Major Andre was taken, and which 
stood in the neighborhood. Some mention was made also of 
the woman in white, that haunted the dark glen at Raven 
Rock, and was often heard to shriek on winter nights before a 
storm, having perished there in the snow. The chief part 
of the stories, however, turned upon the favorite spectre of 
Sleepy Hollow, the headless horseman, who had been heard 
several times of late, patrolling the country ; and, it was said, 
tethered his horse nightly among the graves in the church- 
yard. 

The sequestered situation of this church seems always to 
have made it a favorite haunt of troubled spirits. It stands 
on a knoll, surrounded by locust-trees and lofty elms, from 
among which its decent whitewashed walls shine modestly 
forth, like Christian purity beaming through the shades of 
retirement. A gentle slope descends from it to a silver sheet 
of water, bordered by high trees, between which, peeps may 
be caugfht at the blue hills of the Hudson. To look upon its 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 



37 




grass-grown yard, where the snnbeams seem to sleej) so qnietly, 
one would think that there at least the dead might rest in 
peace. On one side of the churcli extends a wide woody dell, 
along which raves a large brook among broken rocks and 
trunks of fallen trees. Over a deep black part of the stream, 
not far from the church, was formerly thrown a wooden 
bridge; the road that led to it, and the bridge itself, were 
thickly shaded by overhanging trees, which cast a gloom 
about it, even in the daytime ; but occasioned a fearful dark- 
ness at night. This was one of the favorite haunts of the 
headless horseman ; and the place where he was most frequently 
encountered. The tale was told of old Brouwer, a most hereti- 
cal disbeliever in ghosts, how he met the horseman returning 
from his foray into Sleepy Hollow, and was obliged to get 
up behind him; how they galloped over bush and brake, 
over liill and swamp, until they reached the bridge; wlien tlie 



38 THE SKET(^ri BOOK. 

liorseman suddenly turned into a skeleton, threw old Brouwer 
into tlie brook, and sprang away over the tree-tops with a clap 
of thunder. 

This story was immediately matched by a thrice marvellous 
adventure of Brom Bones, who made light of the galloping 
Hessian as an arrant jockey. He affirmed that, on returning 
one night from the neighboring village of Sing Sing, he had 
been overtaken by this midnight trooper ; that he had offered 
to race with him for a bowl of punch, and should have won it 
too, for Daredevil beat the goblin horse all hollow, but, just as 
they came to the church-bridge, the Hessian bolted, and vanished 
in a flash of fire. 

All these tales, told in that drowsy undertone with which men 
talk in the dark, the countenances of the listeners only now and 
then receiving a casual gleam from the glare of a pipe, sank 
deep in the mind of Ichabod. He repaid them in kind with 
large extracts from his invaluable author. Cotton Mather, and 
added many marvellous events that had taken place in his 
native State of Connecticut, and fearful sights which he had 
seen in his nightly walks about Sleepy Hollow. 

The revel now gradually broke up. The old farmers 
gathered together their families in their wagons, and were 
heard for some time rattling along the hollow roads, and over 
the distant hills. Some of the damsels mounted on pillions 
behind their favorite swains, and their light-hearted laughter, 
mingling with the clatter of hoofs, echoed along the silent 
woodlands, sounding fainter and fainter until they gradually 
died away — and the late scene of noise and frolic was all silent 
and" deserted. Ichabod only lingered behind, according to the 
custom of country lovers, to have a tete-a-tete with the heiress, 
fully convinced that he was now on the high road to success. 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 39 

What passed at tliis interview I will not pretend to say, for 
in fiict I do not know. Something, however, I fear me, must 
have gone wrong, for he certainly sallied forth, after no ver^^ 
great interval, with an air quite desolate and chop-fallen. — Oh 
these women ! these women ! Could that girl have been play- 
ing off any of her coquettish tricks ? — Was her encouragement 
of the poor pedagogue all a mere sham to secure her conquest 
of his rival ? — Heaven only knows, not I ! — Let it suffice to 
say, Ichabod stole forth with the air of one who had been 
sacking a hen-roost, rather than a fair lady's heart. Without 
looking to the right or left to notice the scene of rural wealth, 
on which he had so often gloated, he went straight to the 
stable, and with several hearty cuffs and kicks, roused his 
steed most uncourteously from the comfortable quarters in 
which he was soundly sleeping, dreaming of mountains of corn 
and oats, and whole valleys of timothy and clover. 

It was the A^ery witching time of night that Ichabod, heavy- 
hearted and crest-fallen, pursued his travel homewards, along 
the sides of the lofty hills which rise above Tarry Town, and 
which he had traversed so cheerily in the afternoon. The 
hour was as dismal as himself Far below him, the Tappan 
Zee spread its dusk}^ and indistinct waste of waters, with here 
and there the tall mast of a sloop, riding quietly at anchor 
under the land. In the dead hush of midnight, he could even 
hear the barking of the watch-dog from the opposite shore 
of the Hudson ; but it Avas so vague and faint as only to gi^^e 
an idea of his distance from this faithful companion of man. 
Now and then, too, the long-drawn crowing of a cock, acciden- 
tally awakened, would sound far, far off, from some farm-house 
away among the hills — but it Avas like a dreaming sound in his 
ear. l^o signs of life occurred near him, but occasionally the 



40 THE SKETCH BOOK. 

inelanclioly cliirp of a cricket, or perliajDS the guttural twang 
of a bull-frog, from a neighboring marsh, as if sleeping uncom- 
fortably, and turning sucldenl}^ in his bed. 

All the stories of ghosts and goblins that he had heard in the 
afternoon, now came crowding upon his recollection. The 
night grew darker and darker ; the stars seemed to sink deeper 
in the sky, and driving clouds occasionally hid them from his 
sight. He had never felt so lonely and dismal. He was, 
moreover, approaching the very jDlace where man}^ of the 
scenes of the ghost stories had been laid. In the centre of the 
road stood an enormous tulip-tree, which towered like a giant 
above all the other trees of the neighborhood, and formed a 
kind of landmark. Its limbs were gnarled and fantastic, large 
enough to form trunks for ordinary trees, twisting down almost 
to the earth, and rising again into the air. It was connected 
with the tragical story of the unfortunate Andre, who had 
been taken prisoner hard by ; and was universally known by 
the name of Major Andre's tree. The common people regarded 
it with a mixture of respect and superstition, j^artly out of 
sympathy for the fate of its ill-starred namesake, and partly 
from the tales of strange sights and doleful lamentations told 
concerning it. 

As Ichabod approached this fearful tree, he began to whistle: 
he thought his whistle was answered — it was but a blast 
sweeping sharply through the dry branches. As he approached 
a little nearer, he thought he saw something white, hanging in 
the midst of the tree — he paused and ceased whistling ; but 
on looking more narrowly, |)erceived that it was a place where 
the tree had been scathed by lightning, and the white wood 
laid bare. Suddenly he heard a groan — his teeth chattered 
and his knees smote against the saddle ; it was but the rubbing 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. ^l 

of one huge bough upon another, as they were swayed about 
by the breeze. He passed the tree in safety, but new perils 
lay before him. 

About two hundred yards from the tree a small brook 
crossed the road, and ran into a marshy and thickly-wooded 
glen, known by the name of Wiley's swamp. A few rough 
logs, laid side by side, served for a bridge over this stream. 
On that side of the road where the brook entered the wood, a 
group of oaks and chestnuts, matted thick with wild grape- 
vines, threw a cavernous gloom over it. To pass this bridge 
was the severest trial. It was at this identical spot that the 
unfortunate Andre was captured, and under the covert of those 
chestnuts and vines were the sturdy yeomen concealed who 
surprised him. This has ever since been considered a haunted 
stream, and fearful are the feelings of the schoolboy who has 
to pass it aloiie after dark. 

As he approached the stream his heart began to thump ; he 
summoned up, however, all his resolution, gave his horse half 
a score of kicks in the ribs, and attempted to dash briskly 
across the bridge ; but instead of starting forward, the perverse 
old animal made a lateral movement, and ran broadside against 
the fence. Ichabod, whose fears increased with the delay, 
jerked the reins on the other side, and kicked lustily with the 
contrary foot : it was all in vain ; his steed started, it is true, 
but it was only to plunge to the opposite side of the road into 
a thicket of brambles and alder bushes. The schoolmaster now 
bestowed both whip and heel upon the starveling ribs of old 
Gunpowder, who dashed forward, snuffling and snorting, but 
came to a stand just by the bridge, with a suddenness that had 
nearly sent his rider sprawling over his head. Just at this 
moment a plashy tram]) by the side of the bridge caught the 



42 THE SKETCH BOOK. 

sensitive ear of Ichabod. In the dark shadow of the grove, on 
the margin of the brook, he beheld something huge, misshapen, 
black, and towering. It stirred not, but seemed gathered np in 
the gloom, like some gigantic monster ready to spring upon the 
traA^eller. 

The hair of the affrighted pedagogue rose upon his head with 
terror. What was to be done? To turn and ilj was now too 
late; and besides, what chance was there of escaping ghost or 
goblin, if such it was, which could ride upon the wings of the 
wind ? Summoning up, therefore, a show of courage, he 
demanded in stammering accents — "Who are you?" He 
received no reply. He repeated his demand in a still more 
agitated voice. Still there was no answer. Once more he 
cudgelled the sides of the inflexible Gunpowder, and, shutting 
his eyes, broke forth with involuntary fervor into a psalm-tune. 
Just then the shadowy object of alarm ]3ut itself in motion, 
and, with a scramble and a bound, stood at once in the middle 
of the road. Though the night was dark and dismal, yet the 
form of the unknown might now in some degree be ascertained. 
He appeared to be a horseman of large dimensions, and 
mounted on a black horse of powerful frame. He made no 
offer of molestation or sociability, but kept aloof on one side 
of the road, jogging along on the blind side of old Gunpowder, 
who had now got over his fright and waywardness. 

Ichabod, who had no relish for this strange midnight com- 
panion, and bethought himself of the adventure of Brom Bones 
with the Galloping Hessian, now quickened his steed, in hopes 
of leaving him behind. The stranger, however, quickened his 
horse to an equal pace. Ichabod pulled up, and fell into a 
walk, thinking to lag behind — the other did the same. His 
heart l)egan to sink within him ; he endeavored to resume his 



THE lp:gend of sleepy hollow. 



48 




psalm-tune, but liis parched tongue clove to the roof of his 
mouth, and he could not utter a stave. There was something 
in the moody and dogged silence of this pertinacious compan- 
ion, that was mysterious and appalling. It was soon fearfully 
accounted for. On mounting a rising ground, which brought 
the figure of his fellow-traveller in relief against the sky, 
gigantic in height, and muffled in a cloak, Ichabod was horror- 
struck on perceiving that he was headless ! — but his horror 
was still more increased, on observing that the head, which 
should have rested on his shoulders, was carried before him on 
the pommel of the saddle : his terror rose to desperation ; he 



44 THE SKETCH BOOK. 

rained a sliower of kicks and blows upon Gunpowder, hoping 
by a sudden movement, to give his companion the slip — but 
the spectre started full jump with him. Away then they 
dashed, through thick and thin ; stones flying, and sparks 
flashing at every bound. Ichabod's flimsy garments fluttered 
in the air, as he stretched his long lank body away over his 
horse's head, in the eagerness of his flight. 

They had now reached the road which turns off to Sleepy 
Hollow ; but Gunpowder, who seemed possessed with a demon, 
instead of keeping up it, made an opjDOsite turn, and plunged 
headlong down hill to the left. This road leads through a 
sandy hollow, shaded by trees for about a quarter of a mile, 
where it crosses the bridge famous in goblin story, and just 
beyond swells the green knoll on which stands the whitewashed 
church. 

As yet, the panic of the steed had given his unskilful rider 
an apparent advantage in the chase ; but just as he had got 
half way through the hollow, the girths of the saddle gave 
way, and he felt it slipping from under him. He seized it by 
the pommel, and endeavored to hold it firm, but in vain ; and 
had just time to save himself by clasping old Gunpowder round 
the neck, when the saddle fell to the earth, and he heard it 
trampled under foot by his pursuer. For a moment the terror 
of Hans Yan Eipper's wrath passed across his mind— for it was 
his Sunday saddle ; but this was no time for petty fears ; the 
goblin was hard on his haunches ; and (unskilful rider that he 
was !) he had much ado to maintain his seat ; sometimes slip- 
ping on one side, sometimes on another, and sometimes jolted 
on the high ridge of his horse's backbone, with a violence that 
he verily feared would cleave him asunder. 

An opening in the trees now cheered him with the hopes 



THE LEGEND OF SEKKPY HOLLOW 



45 




that the church bridge was at hand. The wavering reflection 
of a silver star in the bosom of the brook told him that he was 
not mistaken. He saw the walls of the church dimly glaring 
under the trees beyond. He recollected the place where Brom 
Bones s ghostly competitor had disappeared. '' If I can but 
reach that bridge,"' thought Ichabod, ''I am safe." Just then 



46 THE SKETCH BOOK. 

lie heard tlie black steed panting and blowing close behind 
him ; he even fancied that he felt his hot breath. Another 
convulsive kick in the ribs, and old Gunpowder sprang npon 
the bridge ; he thundered over the resounding planks ; he 
gained the opposite side ; and now Ichabod cast a look behind, 
to see if his pursuer should vanish, according to rule, in a flash 
of fire and brimstone. Just then he saw the goblin rising in 
his stirrups, and in the very act of hurling his head at him^ 
Ichabod endeavored to dodge the horrible missile, but too late. 
It encountered his cranium with a tremendou.s crash — he was 
tumbled headlong into the dust, and Gunpowder, the black 
steed, and the goblin rider, passed by like a whirlwijid. 

The next morning the old horse was found without his 
saddle, and with the bridle u.nder his feet, soberly cropping 
the grass at his master's gate. Ichabod did not make his 
appearance at breakfast — dinner diour came, but no Ichabod. 
The boys assembled at the school-house, and strolled idly 
about the banks of the brook ; but no schoolmaster. Hans 
Yan Ripper now began to feel some uneasiness about the fate 
of poor Ichabod, and his saddle. An inquiry was set on foot, 
and after diligent investigation they came upon his traces. 
In one part of the road leading to the church was found the 
saddle trampled in the dirt ; the tracks of horses' hoofs deeply 
dented in the road, and evidently at furious speed, were traced 
to the bridge, beyond which, on the bank of a broad part of 
the brook, where the water ran deep and black, was found the 
hat of the unfortunate Ichabod, and close beside it a shattered 
pumpkin. 

The brook was searched, but the body of the schoolmaster 
was not to be discovered. Hans Yan Ripper, as executor of 
his estate, examined the bundle which contained all his worldly 



THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 47 

effects. Tliey consisted of two shirts and a half; two stocks 
for the neck ; a pair or two of worsted stockings ; an old pair 
of corduroy small-clothes; a rusty razor; a book of psalm- 
tunes, full of dogs' ears; and a broken pitchpipe. As to the 
books and furniture of the school-house, they belonged to the 
community, excepting Cotton Mather's History of Witchcraft, a 
New England Almanac, and a book of dreams and fortune- 
telling ; in which last w^as a sheet of foolscap much scribbled 
and blotted, in several fruitless attempts to make a copy of 
verses in honor of the heiress of Van Tassel. These magic 
books and the poetic scrawl were forthwith consigned to the 
flames by Hans Yan Eipper; who from that time forward 
determined to send his children no more to school ; observ- 
ing, that he never knew any good come of this same reading 
and writing. Whatever money the schoolmaster possessed, and 
he had received his quarter's pay but a day or two before, he 
must have had about his person at the time of his disapj^ear- 
ance. 

The mysterious event caused much speculation at the 
church on the following Sunday. Knots of gazers and gossips 
were collected in the churchyard, at the bridge, and at the 
spot Avliere the hat and pumpkin had been found. The stories 
of Brouwer, of Bones, and a whole budget of others, were 
called to mind ; and when they had diligently considered them 
all, and compared them with the symptoms of the present 
case, they shook their heads, and came to the conclusion that 
Ichabod had been carried off by the Galloping Hessian. As 
he was a bachelor, and in nobody's debt, nobody troubled his 
head any more about him. The school was removed to a dif- 
ferent quarter of the hollow, and another pedagogue reigned in 
his stead. 



48 THE SKETCH BOOK. 

It is true, an old farmer, who Lad been down to Kew York 
on a visit several years after, and from whom this account 
of the ghostly adventure was received, brought home the 
intelligence that Ichabod Crane was still alive ; that he had 
left the neighborhood, partly through fear of the goblin and 
Hans Van Ripper, and partly in mortification at having been 
suddenly dismissed by the heiress ; that he had changed his 
quarters to a distant part of the country ; had kept school 
and studied law at the same time, had been admitted to the bar, 
turned politician, electioneered, written for the newspapers, 
and finally had been made a justice of the Ten Pound Court. 
Brom Bones too, who shortly after his rival's disappearance 
conducted the blooming Katrina in triumph to the altar, was 
observed to look exceedingly knowing whenever the story of 
Ichabod was related, and always burst into a hearty laugh at 
the mention of the pumpkin ; which led some to suspect that 
he knew more about the matter than he chose to tell. 

The old country wives, however, who are the best judges of 
these matters, maintain to this day that Ichabod was spirited 
away by supernatural means ; and it is a favorite story often 
told about the neighborhood round the winter evening fire. 
The bridge became more than ever an object of superstitious 
awe, and that may be the reason why the road has been altered 
of late years, so as to approach the church by the border of 
the mill-pond. The school-house, being deserted, soon fell to 
decay, and was reported to be haunted by the ghost of the un- 
fortunate 23edagogue ; and the ploughboy, loitering homeward 
of a still summer evening, has often fancied his voice at a dis- 
tance, chanting a melancholy psalm-tune among the tranquil 
solitudes of Sleepy Hollow. 




The preceding Tale is given almost in the precise words in which I 
heard it related, at a Corporation meeting of the ancient city of Man- 
hattoes, at which were present many of its sagest and most illustrious 
burghers. The narrator was -a. pleasant, shabby, gentlemanly old fellow 
in pepper-and-salt clothes, with a sadly humorous face ; aud one whom 
I strongly suspected of being poor, — he made such efforts to be enter- 
taining. When his story was concluded, there was much laughter and 
approbation, particularly from two or three deputy aldermen, who had 
been asleep the greater part of the time. There was, however, one tall 
dry-looking old gentleman, with beetling eyebrows, who maintained a 
grave and rather severe face throughout: now and then folding his arms 
inclining his head, and looking down upon the floor, as if turning a 
doubt over in his mind. He was one of your wary men, who never 
laugh but upon good grounds — when they have reason and the law on 
their side. When the mirth of the rest of the company had subsided 
and silence was restored, he leaned one arm on the elbow of his chair 
and, sticking the other akimbo, demanded, with a slight but exceedinirly 
sage motion of the head, and contraction of the brow, what was the 
moral of the story, and what it went to prove ? 

The story-teller, who was just putting a glass of wine to his lips, as 



50 THE SKETCH BOOK. 

a retVcshiiicnt after liis toils, paused for a moment, looked at his in- 
quirer with an air of infinite deference, and, lowering the glass slowly 
to the table, observed, that the stor}^ was intended most logically to 
prove : — 

"That there is no situation in life but has its advantages and 
pleasures — provided we will but take a joke as we find it : 

" That, therefore, he that runs races with goblin troopers is likely to 
have a rough riding of it. 

"Ergo, for a country schoolmaster to be refused the hand of a Dutch 
heiress, is a certain step to high preferment in the state." 

The cautious old gentleman knit his brows tenfold closer after this 
explanation, being sorely puzzled by the ratiocination of the syllogism ; 
while, methought, the one in pepper-and-salt eyed him with something 
of a triumphant leer. At length he observed that all this was very 
well, but still he thought the story a little on the extravagant — there 
were one or two points on which he had his doubts. 

" Faith, sir," replied the story-teller, " as to that matter, I don't 

believe one-half of it myself." 

D. K. 




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